Susana Martinez, the Gov. of New Mexico did a phenomenal job last night at the Republican National Convention. Martinez, the first Hispanic, female governor elected to office in the United States wowed the crowd with her personal stories of being a security guard and owning a .357 magnum to her charming story of learning that she was a Republican.Gov. Susana Martinez went on to rip Obama during her speech for is false promises and epic failure that has been his presidency.

“Success is the American Dream. And that success is not something to be ashamed of, or to demonize.”

I believe there are two choices to help determine why the debt has increased since Obama took office.

1) Obama is responsible because he was the one sitting at the Presidents desk in the oval office; it’s about the optics.

2) Government budgets, covering past and future obligations and revenues, are based on mathematics, our laws, and existing and new policies; it’s about the numbers.

Under #1, we should ask what would the US budget (& deficit/debt) be if Obama was not president. Every President takes office with an existing budget in place. No matter who sat down at the desk that day, that budget provides built-in levels of revenues and expenditures. Does simply sitting in the chair transfer the successes and failures of the past to the new Pres?

Under #2, if the budget is somewhat on autopilot, it will operate the next day just like it did the day before, as if it were a living entity. The budget successes and failures are a result of past policies and laws. Only when changes are made does the new govt get their name associated.

The CBPP has analyzed the US budget, and the deficit impact of various policies and budget changes in this article (goo.gl/h7m58) with an easy to grasp chart. There are facts presented, and each of us can form our opinion on how we think this has played out.

Some may think that without Obama in office, the govt wouldn’t have spent the money that increased the deficit. It might be very hard to find facts to support such a position. If we don’t understand how we arrived at a problem, how can we begin to address any solutions? Making decisions without knowing the facts is not my idea of serious approach, and might be more dangerous than maintaining the status quo.

We should all be able to agree that we need to get serious, and find an effective solution to this problem. I think we first need to know more about the problem than just that the debt is big and increasing.